Current electronic devices continue to become more prevalent in day-to-day activities. For example, smart phones and tablet computers continue to grow in popularity and provide everyday personal and business functions to its users. These electronic devices typically include input components, such as buttons or screen displays that may be utilized by a user to interact (e.g., input/output) with the electronic devices. These input components may be formed on and/or integrally with the housing of the electronic device.
To maintain and/or to ensure functionality of the electronic device, input components and the housing of electronic devices may be formed from materials that may with stand conventional wear-and-tear on the electronic device. One material that may be used to form the input components and/or the housing may include the crystalline form of alumina (Al2O3) (e.g., corundum), commonly known as sapphire. Specifically, with unique and beneficial chemical or physical characteristics (e.g., hardness, strength), sapphire has become a viable material to be used in current electronic devices.
To ensure all sapphire material used to form components of the electronic device meet quality control standards and/or will function substantially similar between each individual device, the sapphire material may undergo conventional material testing processes. Such material testing processes may include ring-on-ring material testing or ball-on-ring material testing. These tests may apply a force to the sapphire material until the material flexes or breaks. However, because of the unique chemical or physical characteristics of sapphire material and/or the discrepancies that may form in the material, conventional material testing processes may be inadequate. For example, the ring-on-ring and ball-on-ring material testing processes may only form a contact area on the tested sapphire material where the ring or ball contact the material. As such, the ring or ball may only apply a force in the contact area of the sapphire material during the test. This may result in inaccurate measurements of force required to flex and/or break the sapphire; during testing, the ring or ball may not contact areas of the sapphire in which faults or flaws exist and so the effect of such faults or flaws may not be determined by conventional tests.